Joshua 24

And Joshua gathered all of the tribes of Israel to Shechem. And he called to the elders of Israel and to its heads and to its judges and to its officers. And they presented themselves to the face of God.

And Joshua said to all of the people, “Thus says God, the God of Israel: ‘Your fathers dwelled from long ago beyond the river, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor. And they served other gods. \*

And I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and brought him into all of the land of Canaan. And I multiplied his seed and gave to him Isaac.

And I gave Jacob and Esau to Isaac, and I gave to Esau the hill country of Seir to possess it, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. \*

And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt according to what I did in the midst of it. And afterward I brought you out.

And I brought your fathers out from Egypt, and you came to the sea. And Egypt chased after your fathers with chariot and horsemen to the Sea of Reeds. \*

And they cried out to God, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over him and covered him. And your eyes saw what I did against Egypt. And you dwelled in the wilderness many days. \*

And I brought you to the land of the Amorite, the ones dwelling on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land, and I destroyed them from your faces. \*

And Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose and fought with Israel. And he sent and called for Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you.

But I was not willing to listen to Balaam. And blessing, he blessed you, and I delivered you from his hand. \*

And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought with you, the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. And I gave them into your hand.

And I sent the hornet to your faces, and it dispossessed them out from your faces, the two kings of the Amorite, not by your sword and not by your bow. \*

And I gave to you a land for which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwelled in them. You {are} eating vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ \*

And now, you shall fear God and serve him with sincerity and with faithfulness. And you shall remove the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and you shall serve God.

But if {it is} evil in your eyes to serve God, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods that your fathers served that were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorite in whose land you {are} dwelling. But I and my house, we will serve God.” \*

And the people answered and said, “Profane to us from leaving God to serve other gods!

For God, he {is} our God, the one having brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and who did these great signs before our eyes. And he kept us in all of the way in which we went and among all the peoples in whose midst we passed.

And God dispossessed from our faces all of the peoples and the Amorite, the dweller {in} the land. We ourselves will serve God, for he {is} our God.” \*

And Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve God, for he {is} a holy God, he {is} a jealous God. He will not lift your transgressions and your sins.

If you forsake God and serve the gods of the foreigner, then he will turn and do harm to you and finish you, after when he has done good to you.” \*

And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve God.”

And Joshua said to the people, “You {are} witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen God for yourselves, to serve him.” And they said, “Witnesses.”

“And now, remove the gods of the foreigner that are in your midst, and stretch out your heart to God, the God of Israel.” \*

And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve God our God, and we will listen to his voice.”

And Joshua cut a covenant for the people on that day. And he set for them a statute and a judgment in Shechem.

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the instruction of God. And he took a great stone and set it up there beneath the oak tree that {was} at the Holy Place of God. \*

And Joshua said to all of the people, “Behold, this stone will be for a witness against us, for it has heard all of the words of God that he spoke to us. And it will be for a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”

And Joshua sent the people away, a man to his inheritance. \*

And it happened after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of God, died, a son of 110 years.

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance, in Timnath Serah, which {is} in the hill country of Ephraim, from the north to Mount Gaash. \*

And Israel served God all of the days of Joshua and all of the days of the elders who lengthened days after Joshua and who knew every deed of God that he had done for Israel. \*

And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the portion of the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 qesitah. And it was to the sons of Joseph for an inheritance.

And Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died. And they buried him in Gibeah of Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.